Stuart McCall: Second Place Would Top It All

Motherwell manager Stuart McCall is all smiles as he previews the visit of ICT in the Scottish Premiership

Share

Get daily updates directly to your inbox

Thank you for subscribing!

Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email

The Steelmen are right on the coat-tails of Aberdeen — who defeated Dundee United at Tannadice last night — and victory over Inverness tonight at Fir Park will set up a last-day shoot-out with the Dons to finish 'best of the rest.'

McCall, who has already led his side to a record points total, revealed:“When you take everything into consideration — and I know we haven’t achieved anything yet — it would be without a doubt.

“I’ve been really lucky with injuries since I came here but this season we’ve been decimated at times and certainly other things have gone against us.

“But, we’ve got to where we are and we don’t want to rest on that — we’ve done nothing yet.

“We want to get into Europe and give ourselves the best possible chance of going to Pittodrie with it all to play for.

“If someone was to say we would win 20 out of 36 games given the players we’ve lost and injuries we’ve had, for us to go beyond last season’s points tally of 63, I think the team — in terms of league form — deserve huge credit.

“Obviously, we wanted to do better in the cups, but league wise, for us to get to where we are is down to the group of players we have and I’m really proud of their achievements.”

Tonight’s match with the Highlanders is the fourth meeting of the teams this season, with Well losing one back in August and winning the other two.

And despite Caley having nothing to realistically play for, McCall still expects a tough challenge.

He continued: “They’ve got a lot of good players and a lot of good professionals and I’m sure that they’ll come here with the aim of finishing as high up the league as they can.

“Regardless of how we get there as long as we come off the park with three points I’ll be happy.”

Although both second and third place will mean European football for Motherwell, the higher of those two positions will bring an additional number of benefits that include as much as an extra £250,000 in SPFL prize money and entering the Europa League at a later qualifying round.

McCall wants his side to take care of Inverness first however before they turn their attention to the Granite city. He continued: “We need to win the game against a good Inverness side to give us that opportunity and that would obviously clinch Europe for us.

“But, as we always say, one game at a time — but to give us a chance of second, we need to win.

“If we have the opportunity to go up there and fight for second, that will be beyond my wildest dreams.

“The lads will get an extra couple of weeks off and the finances will be better.

“Hopefully, we’ll be bringing European football back here which will be massive, and if we can do it a few weeks later, that will be fantastic.”